thelerner

As an interesting aside, I grew up across the street from Brock Silvers. Smart kid, studied Chinese, lost touch with him but heard he was rebuilding Taoist monasteries. I didn't know he'd written a book, though it's not surprising. I'll have to get it. From my recollection Brock was a pretty straight shooter and beyond books and philosophy he spent much time in actual monasteries. I'd add many find.. disconnects between the Taoist philosophy and the formal Taoist religion. Which is fine. Odds are we're not heading to live in a monastery or venerate the Taoist pantheon. My life is better lived adhering to a few of the wise philosophical leanings.. bastardized and westernized they may be. addon> bought the (e)book. Another disconnect= $5 on Kindle, otherwise $62 and up from 3rd party sellers. I'm reminded in one of my last conversations with Brock he mentioned that Traditional Taoist would not consider Mantak Chia Taoist. So I'm not surprised his viewpoints come from an orthodox, old world view. Taoism is old, many roots and branches. Some shamanic, others dogmatic; many borrowing and adopting folk religions customs of ages past. It's not alone in that. The fact that such differences exist is owed to its flexibility, versus so many religions that have killed off, successfully or not, their shamanic and mystical origins as well as pantheons that didn't make the cut.

aw, don't be such a wet blanket. Cause one day some giant sized creature might be waddling towards you and by the time you debate its existence it'll be too late.

Looks good. I have 2 small gardens. I keep it simple, keep'em on my front lawn so I see them and take care of them often. My 'secrets' I love cherry tomatoes, they tend to grow fast and be fool proof. I'll stop by coffee places and get grounds (my goto is Whole Foods) and mixed with leaves and grass it makes for a nutritious mulch (so much so, it needs to sit for awhile couple weeks to break down so as not to burn anything). I've started a bit of a trend on my block to start front lawn gardens, just laying down decent quality 40# bags of soil (one slit on bottom, open on top) and planting straight out of them. The next year, get rid of the plastic bags and put a bit of boarder around it. Being narrow, weeding and watering is very easy. Keeping larger critters away, not so much. I keep to a gaspacho theme, ie tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. Thus when the growing gets tough, I can juice/blend more then I can eat. I'll plant marigolds around the garden in hopes they scare bugs away. I tend to be too impatient to grow from seed or clone (except for leaf lettuce). I'll buy small plants and put a half bottle on top to protect them while young. I always end up growing too much, and things go to seed, plus I get a few tomato plants sprouting up naturally from last years fallen fruit. The chocolate mint sounds good. Mint is the ultimate weed and you can go straight into your mouth. I don't do hydroponics, but the systems I liked the best used 'canoes', ie tank below and growing the plants in floating canoes, where the root could hit a little bit of the water.

Can't think of anything else, in truth, I'm not so advanced, just have been known to hang out with some who are. Phils advice sounds good. Or.. just taking some time off from the energy work. Walks in nature, listening to dharma speeches- I like Infinitesmile.org.. simple sitting.. grounding stuff. Even listening to good music, give your mind and body a break. Given a chance the body tends to heal on its own, especially once we get out of its way.

Back to the original video. There is the physics that say such a large size would have massive problems walking etc., but there's also the problem of people's reaction. Yes, the Japanese can be restrained and stoic, but having an baby godzilla sized guy walking in a parade or standing right behind you would probably elicit a more human gawking response. Unless it was the giants daily stroll.

I usually meditate at night, the room probably a little chilly, in the mid 60's. Yet midway, I get warm, particularly my lower dantien area. Course I breathe slowly and keep my hands against folded touching below my belly and often have a slight rock. Nothing phenomenal. Often early on my nose and eyes will tear a little, which I believe is a reaction of a deep relaxation response. After meditation if I rub my hands together rapidly they seem to get way hotter then they would normally.

My standard advice to people is to avoid blunt force. Unless you're working with Golden Bell chi gung.. then its good. Here's one angle to consider: unless you were waay intense, or are very energy sensitive, odds are that it is because you believe it is. Energy stuff is so subtle that its possible that- if you believe you're leaking, you are leaking. If you believed such 'hits' gave you energy, you'd feel that way too. Everybody is different and take such internet advice with a grain of salt, but it might not be a bad idea to turn around in your head. Ideas can get stuck on us like leaches and when we stop giving them power, they fade away. In my opinion, we live in a placebo world. The secret is to make the placebos work for you.

Never say never. Strangely, short & dumb, can be very smart lucrative. and fun. So, a little bit in the oddball category from XIV or bitcoin can be good. Not long term and not with more then a percentage points of your entire savings. For me, its about honoring my instincts, but not absolutely trust them. Ie, if i feel a correction is coming, I'll sell a little bit, or buy a put or two. If it seems I'm correct, I'll do a little more. But from long experience, I've learned walking in a direction is better then running. If you've got a strong feeling for bitcoin, buy a little, maybe find an etf or fractional coin that gives you a taste. But buying is less then half the equation. Knowing when to sell, is more then half and then there's getting back in. Human psychology makes us naturally poor investors. Not only do we (& professionals) do worse then the market average, even when investing in the market average we do worse then it, because our instincts have us buy and sell at the wrong times. A friend and I have a running joke that the market gods are watching and they are vengeful**. So often as soon as you make an investment it immediately goes down. Nasty especially when it goes down after good news. The reality is there's a thousand of you(s) buying a thousand of you(s) selling and a market maker inbetween seeing the orders and stop orders and working to make their own largest 'cut'. **Perhaps the reason why so often a stock goes down as soon as you buy could be due to a 'Rick & Morty' phenomena. Rick is always saying he has infinite selves living out his life in other dimensions. To some extent We are not alone in our ideas. Those with similar mind sets are doing the same thing we are for the same reasons, cause they have the same data conscious and unconscious. So we're likely in the middle of the herd of Us's buying after the first half has raised the price. The early buyers have there bump and are now selling (to us) having made a quick 5% on the upside. This is not the worst thing, especially if your a long term investor. A few points here or there won't make or break you. Still not a bad idea to have a buy list (& sell list) and keep track of how a stock behavior before for a while; know why it goes up and down (news.. or floating on a markets movement like a beach ball..)

Stuff like that historically crashes and burns due to black swans. Unfortunately while it lasts it'll tend to accelerate market moves, since such programs usually use trend following algorithms. Yet since the beginning, forces infront and behind the market have always been able to take advantage of little inconsistencies. Inevitably once they're fully exploited, they disappear. A couple years ago Warren Buffet bet a hedge fund a million bucks they couldn't beat the market. He won handily (http://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffett-wins-million-dollar-bet-against-hedge-funds-2018-1). Note the Hedge fund used the latest and greatest etc., etc. Being too smart, getting too far into schemes, speed and options.. or anything you don't understand or couldn't explain simply is not a good route to take in the long run. Keep thing simple and better to invest in a SWAN (Sleep Well At Night) then be taken by a Black Swan (unusual downward event that happen way more often then expected.) For most, a site like Wealthfront.com is a smart rational investment vehicle. I'm kinda proud my 18 year found it and is investing part of the money he gets tutoring math into it regularly.

In some ye olde traditions it was taught to begin in hard martial arts and evolve softer as time went on. That always sounded like a wise path to me. Otherwise done too long and repetitively your hard martial art can break down your body. It wasn't from Shotokan, but there were some nice dynamic tension katas in some other karate style that was good for overall muscle work outs. I'd add, I meditate better after a hard workout, when my bodies tired. Course for overall fitness I've heard people, well Doc Glenn Morris in particular (&most yogi's) rave about the simple Sun Salutation sequence in yoga.

In the long run (10 years plus) the stock market's been the best hedge against inflation and way to grow your savings. It may not make you rich, but it can make you comfortable. Slow, 'dumb' money invested over the long term is smart. By dumb I mean invested in the larger ETF's or mutual funds that cover a wide swath of the market. I forget who said it, but diversity is the only real 'free lunch' the market gives. And time, it can be as valuable as amount, ie invest early, reinvest dividends and let compounding interest get rolling. Seemingly crappy stocks can become brilliant, given enough time and a little luck. I like 50% in broad funds (like SPY, DIA, VYM, QQQ's or the many similar vehicles), 30% in higher dividend payers (4%+ w/ historical appreciation) and another 20% in more speculative stocks..something with a story(examp SMG, solid boring stock, but getting into hydroponics thus MJ). As you get older there's sense to make some room for bonds, but I find they're frozen money, better to have a dividend stock (or REIT) that has potential to grow in price and steadily in dividend rate then a bond that while less volatile tend to be frozen in both. My own conceit, most experts recommend older savers have bonds for safety. Stocks can be like crops, right soil and climate and they do well but when climate changes, slowly change your make up. In a world where FANG rules.. (Facebook Amazon Netflix Google) get some fund (like QQQ's or FDN) that's heavy with them. Like crops, some you prune, some you dig up, others are fruit trees and you let'em grow and turn into more trees. Diversifying will keep you out of trouble. Like your stocks but don't love them. Simple does well, exotic.. perishes. You can honor a drought or storm by taking some action, but don't panic. Walk don't run. Things are rarely all or nothing, and it can be wiser to sell a small portion then panic. For dividends stocks, falling to lower prices mean getting more shares, that can be very good long term. On the other hand, one saying from Kramer is Don't buy and hold, buy and homework. Read articles and look for fundamental shifts that could put 'your' companies at risk. If it might be, then walk the money somewhere safer. last thought. I can understand why for recent entrants the market correction (-10%ish) has been frightening, but for those of us who've been in the market for decades, it was more like, What took it so long?

I'm under the impression this one is called Aku. Most famous for being the enemy of Samurai Jack. seriously, the artists of Samurai Jack (Like Avatar: The last airbender series) took there history and archetypes seriously. No coincidence their artwork is found in real life. <taken from https://volfeyed.deviantart.com/art/Aku-Mr-Sunshine-121538592 seriouser, I'd love to see these artifacts side by side with photos of similar ones from other world cultures.

Good bad and ugly Roll like a 3 sided dice. Gotta toss to play

I voted yes, perhaps naively. The simplest group interaction is simply meditating together. That's always been a positive experience for me. As far as distance stuff.. the problem I've had is not being able to connect. Still caveat emptor. Know the person or object of your connection before hand. Be grounded and without expectation.

Also welcome, I'd love to find out what goes on in Naropa University. What'd you take, what it was like..?

Off the top of my head.. purple is the color of royalty.. even spirituality as the top chakra's are purple-y. Snakes often represent fear or sexuality in dreams. From there.. you can see if that connects and take some action to honor the dream. Or take a less mystical path, file it away as another anxiety dream.

Those are great, the 'joseki' of sword play. Filled with subtlety, many small angles of body and blade you can't get from a film. I didn't get too far with them even at Nidan.

I was wondering where to put this. Thought about in my PPD but I wanted other people to join in if they wanted, plus the strength of this project is that it's public. Group Studies is a relatively underused sub-forum, maybe it'll do well here. This thread is about making a Plan sealing it with a promise of consequences if you don't follow through. The idea is the use of public peer pressure to increase follow through.

1/29/18 Sadly, I'm in fasting mode again to insure I make it. Need to be 192.3# or below. At the moment 193ish, won't be eating for 2 days. The end of month weigh in is any time on January 31st. The weigh in for February is Feb 1st first thing in the morning. I will lose another 3#'s by hook, crook, intelligent discipline or.amputation.byFeb28th.my damnit.spilledcoffeeonkeyboard.space.not.working.

The tax cut has been a good idea, and is indeed standard Republican platform stuff. While I've been making out like a bandit, my dog, if I had one, would have 2 diamond collars, one for itself, another to wrap around its rear end, just for show. Anyhow, I think a moderate Republican President would have listened to the other side and compromised. Aiming more benefits to the middle class and poor. Gaining some bi-partisan support, and there were a couple of Dems who'd listen and indeed reached out for such. You could still have substantial cuts and directly help those who haven't seen much benefit. It's good economics too, since they spend the money, invigorating local shops, whereas the wealthier tend to stash it. It'd be good politics too. I assume in the coming year or two, many poor (10,000's? 100,000s? millions?) will have there health care canceled, and probably other programs too. Some will die and it won't be pretty. A substantial number of Trump voters (rural) will get little or no benefit from a booming stock market. While some benefits will trickle down, the bridge between rich and poor will increase. With the super rich doing particularly well. The Reaganomics and its mind set are indeed back in play, and they were a mixed bag. I expect the general stock market and commodities to continue to do well. I'd recommend against investors chasing what's hot and going for safer, more boring investments.. broad market ETF's (SPY, DIA..) or mutual funds, or higher dividend vehicles, since prices move up and down, but dividends are what you keep (or if possible reinvest).

Thanks for the comment. I hadn't read these in quite awhile and they are imo, thought provoking and insightful. I'll have to see if there anything new and worthy to add.

What a great post. Useful and concise, practical yet poetical, keeping with the imagery of the tradition.

imo, gematria, linking numbers, names and events tends to say more about the person doing it then association itself. Somehow the name and numbers always seem to point where the person wants it too. In truth we can probably use gematria to link anyone to anything in a dozen ways, maybe hundreds if we dropped a digit or fudged a date. For example I could find numbers showing that I'm the devil, but that would be coincidence or diabolically throwing the suspicious off my track. On the third hand, like a rorschach test, gematria gives insight into oneself, can be a study aid, and shows a certain mastery of the material. I remember hanging out with Guru Gil in Jerusalem. He'd translated the whole 5 Books(Tenach) into numbers. A surprisingly short book of pages and pages of numbers. With great meaning and insights to those who believed in such things.

I get the feeling every generation think common sense is becoming less common. If true, we wouldn't be around. Every generation tends to look down at the next. Yet they manage. Throwing us off because they're not interested in the same things we are. They have different talents and will make different mistakes. The kids I'm seeing seem more environmental, more computer literate, maybe less sexually obsessed then some of the last X's or Y's or M's.

I call it capitalism, and think banks, loans and credit are good things. Powerful tools, while they can be misused, when handled intelligently create much prosperity. Its great to buy a house and take out a 30 year mortgage, rather then wait 30 years til you're 50 to save up enough to buy it, or similarly a car. Such loans do 'create' money, increasing the 'velocity of money' (an important element in monetary theory and why inflation didn't raise its head earlier), but that's not bad in my book. As long as debts can be repaid, and people don't over reach, its all good. No need to bring mockingbirds, gold or Central banks into the equation. Loans are what banks do. Are there 'theorists' who don't use loans or credit cards for fear that they'll add to the counterfeiting by Central bank forgers who create mockingbirds? Whose idea of Capitalism doesn't have banks, loans or interest rates? Okaay. Please consider the above rhetorical and not an opening to explain conspiracy theory. Back to OP. Credit is a tool, used wisely it's helps, poorly and it can turn people into indentured servants. Use it carefully. Having a good credit score will help you and save you money in the future. Pay bills on time, establish credit, having old credit cards with no late payments helps establish a higher score, even if you don't use them much. There's a blog called MyMoneyblog (http://www.mymoneyblog.com/)that has imo solid info on finance, coupons, above average credit offers. Not recommended for most, but he'll 'play' the credit card companies, taking out cards, getting the bonus's and canceling them soon after. Not a bad game if you stay on top of it.